Applejack
by Mice
Summary: Part 1: The Sun. Bobby Drake and Drake'son talk about women while on the astral plane of their ex-girlfriend/ex-wife. Sean Cassidy and Emma Frost catch up since their days as co-headmasters. Annie reveals what her code name would have been. Part 2: On the Moon. Hank McCoy, football star, party legend, and sexually frustrated centaur, Gen X mini reunion.
1. Chapter 1

**Applejack**  
By Mice

**-Prologue-**

I can't remember when I began to have a perfect memory. This is one of the many contradictions I have. Nobody would have suspected; I wasn't a good student and I never had my shit together. I wasn't a nerd, I was a jock in high school. And even with a perfect memory, there are memories I can't access. I try, but they feel too hot - as if to warn me about going to close.

I refer to these memories as "the sun". Memories that I know comprise the sun include my trip to New York City when I was seven, a night with Dr. Hank McCoy, the night I tried to kill myself, and the day my heart broke. I remember how these begin. What I don't remember is how they end. I don't want to remember how they end. They must be terrible.

There may be more. There's a thought.

These thoughts are why I choose to stay in what I call "the moon". Facts. Data. Events. Trivia. Folderol. I can list every ingredient in a Twinkie (Hostess, Bimbo Bakeries, and forty-seven homemade recipes in order of best reviewed) and name every ruler of every kingdom in any known galaxy by date.

But never the emotions. Those stay on the sun. Where I can't touch. Where I don't want to touch.

Three men and one boy are in my head via a telepathic bridge, each one in the form of my choosing. All are knights.

I have chosen my ex-boyfriend in this reality, Bobby Drake, and my husband from another dimension, Drake'son (who is also Bobby Drake) to head towards the sun. Bobby is a silver knight who carries a sheild with a Pegasus symbol. Drake'son is the golden knight whose sheild has a unicorn. This means something to me.

Coming towards the moon is Hank. He will not like the fact that he is a centaur, but will comment on the irony of it.

Bert Bass, the boy and cousin of the Bobby's, is headed in what I can only imagine is the dark ocean. I don't even go there, not even in my sleep. A hippocamp. He is disappointed he is not furry, but happy that he is blue.

We are not alone in here. Aside from the mental demons that everyone has, my mother is here. This is who these men and one boy were sent to retrieve. I look forward to her removal.

It would have taken too long that Dr. Emily Clay-Poole is also here. It was an accident. After trying to repair her techno-organic body, my body began to absorb her. I had no idea until I woke up with a metal tip to my tongue - the tip that she caused me to bite off during a fight.

At first, I kept cutting it off, repulsed by how my body was not my own. But I was so tired of lisping...and it provided a clue to me about the true nature of my powers. I'm not just a perfect memory.

I absorb information. I can do this through any of my senses.

I've absorbed another woman's DNA. I am not sure how I have done this. I am hoping I have not absorbed her personality. (I hope I'm more exciting than oatmeal...) I do enjoy the use of my tongue and something else she took from me years ago - having a unique repair function has come in handy. Sean Cassidy ran my head through a wall a few months back. From where it was to what I showed Hank was a miracle in healing. I have no scar currently.

My body is not my own and neither is my mind.

I hope the Bobby's can retrieve my mother and that Bert will be okay.

I am lying on the moon, Waiting for Hank, wondering if Sean knows...

I was a waitress, I am an engineer, I will be married. I am in need of saving once again and I couldn't do it myself. I don't deserve the kindness of these men.

I'm just Annie Peckenpaugh.

Just a horse.


	2. Chapter 2

**Applejack**

**Part 1: The Sun**

**By Mice**

**_-The Sun, the Astral Plane of Annie Peckenpaugh's Mind-_**

In the desert and under the sun, there were two knighted Robert Drakes on horseback, one silver, one gold. One from an alternate dimension, one from this reality.

The silence was too much for Drake'son, the Robert Drake from an alternate dimension. "You are most peculiar, Bobby."

"Yeah?"

"We've been riding in this desert for what seems like ages and you haven't asked me one question." Drake'son shook his head. "Have you no curiosity?"

"It's not like you've asked me any question, either, you know..."

Drake'son smiled. "You forget. I've been around your friends...more importantly, your women. I know much about you. There is little more I am curious about."

"'My women'?" Bobby liked the sound of it, but it also hit him hard in the stomach.

"They have feelings, Bobby. You must have known that they would miss you if you went away."

"Yeah, well, that's not my experience." He looked at Drake'son, who maintained his eye-patch and rugged appearance in the astral plane. "Annie would never let me apologize to her."

"She might have found closure before you were ready to give it."

Bobby stopped his horse. "You two didn't do anything, did you?"

"Why do you ask? Would it upset you to know?" Drake'son replied, moving his horse nearer Bobby's.

"Maybe."

"She was my wife where I came from. I do not think I needed any permission."

"Before or after she got engaged to Cassidy?"

Drake'son smiled again. "After."

"You're pretty smug for encouraging her to cheat on her fiance."

"It wasn't the first time I managed that." Drake'son moved in closer to Bobby, their horses comfortably grazing on sand. "When I met her in my timeline, Annie was engaged to Hank. I talked her out of it." Drake'son began to ride his horse again. "Shall we get going? If memory serves, I think we're getting closer..."

"How?"

"Well, I have done this procedure before and the sun was a key -"

"No, how did you steal her from Hank?" This idea, that he would ever be able to woo a woman away from Hank, was more exciting than the idea of having an alternate time line version of him.

"By giving her what Hank never could."

Bobby stared at him waiting for an answer. "Well?"

Drake'son sighed, wondering how his alternate version of himself could be so oblivious. "Absolute adoration. With Hank's head being buried in his lab all the time - before ironically being buried alive in his lab and considered dead for a few years before -" Drake'son saw Bobby give him a confused look. "A tale for another time. The point is, Hank neglected her and took her adoration for granted. I, in turn, made myself available to her, emotionally, physically - whatever she needed. As a result, we bonded."

"I don't know whether you're a jerk for doing that to Hank or a bad ass because I would never be able to do that."

"That's just your self doubt. That is our difference."

"I know I got insecurities a go-go - everybody does. Even you!" Bobby accused, but desperately wanting to see at least one version of himself be confident as he was never.

"I have them. I do not let them rule me. Look there!" Drake'son stopped his horse and withdrew his sword. "The sun is getting closer to us."

"And that's good?" Bobby slowly withdrew his sword. He wondered if Drake'son's was bigger.

"I am assuming that it is where we need to go. Are you ready to do something incredibly brave, Bobby?"

"'Doing something brave' usually translates into 'doing something extremely stupid'..."

"It's all in how you say it." Drake'son pointed to the sun with his sword. "We're going in, Bobby."

Bobby froze. "I don't want to."

"I figured you'd say that." Drake'son tapped Bobby's horse with his sword that sent her running wildly to the sun, unable to process Bobby's commands in favor of her own pain. "Adventures!" Drake'son shouted as he charged in after him.

_**-Hyperion Hotel, October 4th-**_

"You were able to retrieve her without much trouble, I take it."

"Aye." Sean placed the unconscious body on the bed. "What do ye plan to do with her?"

"I've been asked to prep her as a receptacle for a soul. After that, I'm taking a hot bath with a bottle of champagne." Emma Frost smiled, unable to resist. "Care to join me? The bath only, no more booze for you."

"If ye didn't manage to nail me in Massachusetts, woman, what makes ye think you'd have a chance tonight?"

"Oh, Sean, really. You make it sound like I've been pining over you. Truth is, I'm concerned."

"I'm doin' fine."

"That's not what everyone is thinking and I should know." Emma saw the anger in his eye. "I will admit, Sean - I never saw you as an abusive type."

"It was an accident."

Emma felt his shame. At least he had that, still. "Did it ever happen with Moira? How about Mauve-"

Sean took deep breaths, resisting the urge to break something. "No harm ever came to them by my hand."

Emma frowned. "Not while sober, at least. Don't think I haven't been keeping tabs on you."

"Don't ye have anything else better to do, like shopping for new and expensive ways to be as close to naked as possible?"

"Sean, you may attack my character all you like, but my fashion?" Emma shook her head. "That's low, even for you. No, my concern comes from not just what I've heard whispered about Annie, but direct reports from Paige, Monet and Jubilee. Before we thought you all were dead and after."

"I liked bein' dead," Sean admitted. "Bein' dead was easy. I don't know what I want anymore."

"Then why on earth are you marrying the...oh, what are we calling her these days...the Barnyard Belle? The Walking Mattress from Wyoming?"

"Don't call her that. She has enough issues with all ye ladies as it is."

"So you can be tender about her, Sean?" Emma cocked her head playfully. "After what she did with Drake'son?"

Sean remained quiet. She knew he knew.

"Do you know she still continues to proposition Hank? Even tonight?"

More quiet, but she felt his anger.

"Sean, why on earth are you with her?"

"She saved me, Emma." Sean looked down. "As much as I hate bein' alive, I haveta do it. And she makes it easier."

"Even if she isn't true to you?"

"As long as she comes home ta me."

Emma studied her former co-headmaster, knowing him in ways that the other X-Men could not. "There's something you're addicted to."

Sean stood silent.

"Something...that takes the edge off. Something that..." Emma let her mind graze Sean's. She saw the pain of the past and present, but tempered. Almost faded. A mushed pile of faces of men who Sean had kicked bloody with his boots. The memory of finding out Mauve was dead. Watching Moira die. Watching Sean die. They only seemed painful to look at, but there was a dissociation. "You can't feel the pain, can you?"

"Aye. And it's because of her."

_**-The Sun, the Astral Plane of Annie Peckenpaugh's Mind-**_

"I thought the sun would be hot."

"It is hot."

"Yeah, I know, but hotter."

"This is pretty hot."

"Dude, we're the Iceman. It takes a lot for us to call it hot."

"I'm not Iceman."

"But you're me."

"I'm Drake'son."

"AKA, Bobby Drake."

"I'm an empath, Bobby. That's all I am."

Bobby frowned. "Oh. So I'm only fucked up in this world."

"I am sure that there are many worlds where you are fucked up."

"Gee, thanks." Bobby looked around on the inside of the sun. "I thought it would be scarier. It actually feels familiar...like..." A piece of paper floated down with the sound of a giggle echoing far away. Bobby caught it. "It feels like that night."

Drake'son peered over and saw the drawing a semi-nude Annie. "Did you draw that?"

Bobby nodded. "It was one of the greatest nights of my life."

"How are you feeling right now?"

"Have you ever been on heroin?"

"No. Have you?"

Bobby shook his head. "You go to rehab a few times and everybody either thinks you're a junkie or can score you some coke...just sayin' that this feels like what heroin is."

Drake'son pointed up. "Do you see that bright, fiery center?" Bobby nodded. "That's why. That's also what we are here to retrieve. That's Salem Brodie."

"...this is really cool, Drake'son."

"I know."

_**-Christmas Eve, Santa Monica - Two Years Ago-**_

The bottle of Scotch had been worn down to a drop. Annie was unsure of how she was holding her head up or when she had ever drank this much before. Sean seemed as steady as a battleship.

"Yer a terrible drunk, Peckenpaugh."

Annie made a face. "Don't call me that, ugh."

"Did ye ever get yerself a fancy code name."

"Never did get to that part." Annie frowned and covered her head with a towel.

"What would ye have chosen?"

"Doesn't some sort of committee figure on your name?"

Sean shrugged. "I came in with me own. So did Logan."

"And everyone would confuse li'l ole me for either of you." Annie sighed and looked down. "'Applejack'. I would have chosen 'Applejack'."

Sean blinked. "That is the shittiest liquor I have ever drank."

"Not the liquor! It's a reference. Do you like Kurt Russell films, Sean?"

"I'm a man, aren't I?"

"When he was a child star at Disney?"

"I'm a man."

"Anyway. There was a movie called "The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes" - Kurt Russell played the lead character who was in college and had a perfect memory due to some shenanigans with Cesar Romero."

"Of course."

"Anyway, the college kids try to scheme a prize on a quiz bowl show and the word "Applejack" just makes Kurt Russell spill the guts about a gambling ring -"

"Run by Cesar Romero?"

"Of course!" Annie smiled. "So, I always thought "Applejack" would be a cool code name. Female Kurt Russell."

Sean smiled. "What aren't you telling me."

Annie sucked her bottom lip before exhaling. "Also, it's the name of my favorite "My Little Pony". She had green eyes and freckles like me and was just a pony. Not a unicorn. Not a pegasus. Just a pony." Annie smiled and held her hands out in a flourish. "Like me."

"Annie..."

"I was being fitted for the Doug Ramsey award. I'm over the whole idea of being an X-Men or useful or...anything." Annie suddenly felt very guilty. "Sean, I-"

"Annie?"

"Yes, Sean?"

"Would ye kiss me?"

Annie made her way slowly to Sean and he helped her on to his lap. She swallowed and pushed her guilt down. Annie was about to open up about Hank to Sean and hopefully get his advice, but she never thought she'd hear an Irish accent say those words. Not with eyes that looked so lost and helpless.

"Of course, Sean."


	3. Chapter 3

**Applejack**

**By Mice**

**Chapter 2: On the Moon**

_-Dundee, Indiana - Past-_

"Tell us again, Hank!"

"Yeah, tell us!"

Hank put his arm around the Morgan sisters, Penny age 16 and Vanessa age 17. "Well, ladies, as I am still drunk off of the perfume of victory -

"Cut the fancy talk!

"Just tell us!"

Hank looked at the giggle girl under each arm and let it go. "I won the game! Dundee High School Football rules!"

The room cheered.

That's all they wanted to hear. And as long as the Morgan sisters kept pawing at his muscles (that were bulging under his gray t-shirt), that was fine enough. He had two beers already and the better part of a bottle of vodka that had been going around. Hank had barely felt anything until Fred Creek had gone to his parents' bedroom and found a bottle of exceptionally good tequila that Hank found a home for down in his throat.

He had not yet been able to do his trademark "fireball", but the night was still young.

And this night wasn't even the championship, but Hank had booze, women, and the complete admiration of his peers.

All the hallmarks of a successful man, all his at the age of eighteen.

_-Hyperion Hotel, New York - Present-_

"I can't believe you came!"

"I can't, either."

"How have you been?"

"Could complain, but I don't want to bore you." Monet St. Croix fended off the hug that Paige Guthrie wanted so badly to give to her former teammate. "How are you, Paige, you seem to be simply bursting?"

"I'm great, things couldn't be better. You know, I realize now that my desire to turn my relationship with Warren into a TV Movie of the Week was just a desperate cry for attention, but it did give me a taste of what being a producer was." Paige nodded slowly, savoring the memory. "I really liked that."

"Have you caught up with Worthington?"

Paige shook her head, nose high in the air. "Monet, I am not Jubilee. I don't remain stuck on past infatuations."

"You talking about her and Iceman?"

"She once borrowed my phone for a full hour and blew up my data plan and still has never paid me back for it." Paige rolled her eyes. "Can you believe she still hasn't paid me back?"

Monet remained silent.

"I mean, I don't have St. Croix money, Monet."

"While I do find some of Jubilation's antics theatrical, histrionic, and sometimes cringeworthy, they are being done in the name of a friend. If she feels the friendship is worth it to use every method at her disposal, then I say, good for her. Use your phone. Borrow a car from me." Monet tossed her hair over a shoulder. "She's been through this rejection for years. How long did it take you to sell out your relationship with Warren?"

Paige shut her mouth and glared at Monet. "We never actually got past casting or a complete script so I wish people would stop making such a big deal out of it..."

_-The Moon, the Astral Plane in the mind of Annie Peckenpaugh-_

Annie sat on a bench, head looking down at the moon. There wasn't much there and there didn't need to be. It was the place she went in her mind when she wanted to be alone. It was a place she couldn't find as easily anymore. With the psionic invasion of the Bobby's Drake, Hank and Bert, everything seemed more distracted and being alone had never been easier.

Until Hank came.

She felt him wandering around, alone and unsure of where to go. First, he tried following logic. When that failed him, he turned to instinct. That had gotten him to where she was.

"There's room enough for two, Hank."

Hank wasn't even thinking about sitting down. He had something else on his mind.

"You made me a centaur."

"And I made Bobby Pegasus and Drake'son a Unicorn. If anyone should be complaining, it should be Bert -"

"Annie, I want you to look up and if either Robert or Bert come close, then I might calm down."

Annie looked up. "You mean I made you a centaur as in -"

"You made me a centaur." Hank was literally one part furless and a man with a horse's body. Of all incarnations he had suffered through, he was pretty sure this was his least liked.

"You shouldn't be too surprised. Your whole trip is "body of a beast with the mind of a man". It's perfect. Plus, in Greece, the finest tutors were considered to be the centaurs." Annie smiled. "Can I pet your back?"

"Maybe when I've come to terms with this more, but you may not. Also, before this even occurs to you - no pony rides." He stomped his hoof.

Annie giggled. "I'm really sorry, Hank."

"This has to stop, Annie."

"I'll see what I can do, but I'm not fully in control here-"

"No, not the form." Hank came closer to her. "After this is done, Annie, I don't think we should talk anymore."

Annie bit her lip. "Why?"

"You want something from me that I can't give you. I want you to stop asking for it."

"I'm only asking for what both of us want. Since you've given up, I thought it was my job to keep the conversation going." Annie could feel herself freeze up before remembering where she was - the safest place in the world. "Hank, you started the flirting. If you don't like the fact that it worked, you have only yourself to blame."

"It's been years. When you left in the middle of the night to go to Santa Monica, that should have been the end of it." Hank frowned. "You didn't say good-bye, you didn't leave me a note! I call and write you, nothing for a month. Meanwhile, Scott and Jean are driving Bobby to a rehab facility and I'm not allowed to come."

"I'm sorry, Hank, I -"

"Then you find Sean Cassidy and I think - great! He's a friend, I'll leave her alone! What could go wrong?" Hank smacked his hands together. "You lay that bombshell on me, with an added, 'Oh, why didn't you call when I told you I was getting married'?"

"I was scared, Hank."

"Not scared enough to leave him." Hank circled her. "Are the rumors true about you and Drake'son?"

Annie squinted her eyes. "I admit that we slept together, but there's nothing-"

"Annie, you're a tease."

"Excuse me?"

Hank shook his head. "I took you from that pitiful diner, I took you away from a relationship and family situation that clearly was not working, I gave you the chance to be my protege - mine! I work with you night and day and you barely..." Hank's hands shook. "You trained with Gambit. What else did you do?"

Annie stood up and moved to him. "Oh, so now you're getting jealous? Let me tell you about you stuffing my head full of knowledge like it's an Oreo cookie! I can only take so much of your methods!" Her arms flew over her head. "Remy was the first person who keyed in on the problem. Maybe because he wasn't focusing on the part where I was his "protege"!"

"Maybe he was focusing on how to get into your pants!"

"My pants are no longer your concern, Dr. McCoy!"

"Well, I haven't been concerned about the state of your pants for years, Miss Peckenpaugh! Take that to bed with you every night for the rest of your life and forget that I even existed!" Hank began to leave.

"The very fact that you have to yell this to me and be this dramatic means that you care for me!"

Hank turned to see her standing on the bench, her eyes cold and green. He growled. "The very fact that you even need this is ridiculous. It was obvious I had massive amounts of affection toward you at one time, Annie but that has been over for some time." He shook his head again as he approached her. "Everything is different. This can't be what it once was."

"Good." Annie kissed him.

_-Laramie, Wyoming - Past-_

The Pallas Women's Varsity Softball team had chosen the room of Jessica Blakefield as the party room. Jessica had some family in Laramie who knew some other students in the area. Pretty soon, the Laramie Holiday Inn was covered in teenagers.

Annie Peckenpaugh, captain of the softball team, was without her boyfriend and one such teenager. She was smart enough not to take a drink about of whatever was in the brown paper bag floating around. She was situated at the top of the motel, outside on the railing, looking down at everyone in an area she had all to herself.

Someone would have to explain everything in the morning. Including what happened to the pool (it was currently not turquoise but pink).

"Man, those Pallas gals can party."

Annie turned to see a tall, powerfully built boy about her age with a pair of thick framed glasses. She recognized him from a few football games. "You're number 8, Julius, right?"

"Yeah, last year. I'm Tony." He gave her his hand. "You part of the party from Pallas?"

Annie nodded. "I am their captain and I led them to victory tonight."

"Number 12, Peckenpaugh?"

Annie smiled. "How do you know that?"

"Well, how do you know my number?"

"Everybody follows football, nobody follows girls' softball." She looked away from him, feeling suddenly shy.

"My sister plays and I see your games." Tony smoothed Annie's hair behind her ear. "If Pallas' football team was like their softball league, they'd have a shot at the championship."

Annie blushed. Her boyfriend, Lindsey Porney, who participated in no sports, had never attended a single one of her games or seemed to care how important they were to her.

"I'm Annie," she found herself saying out loud.

Tony pushed his glasses up. "Hi, Annie." She caught him blushing briefly back at her. He slowly went for her hand. "I feel like the old guy at the party even though I only graduated last year."

"You go to UW?"

Tony nodded.

"And you came to a Holiday Inn? I'd imagine you'd have better things to do."

Tony laughed. "I only came up here because my sister's boyfriend came up to meet her. Gotta keep an eye on her."

Annie laughed. "That's great that you're so concerned about her."

"You know how it is with teenaged girls when they get with teenaged boys..." Tony blushed again.

"I know." She thought about her own relationship and how much she ignored of Lindsey cheating on her. Whenever thoughts about breaking up crept in her mind, she worried about the alternative - Lindsey wasn't so bad, what if she met someone who was?

"Do you want a Coke?" Tony smiled at her. "No booze, just a Coke. I got training in the morning."

Annie nodded. "A Coke would be nice." His attention returned to the pool below when she spied a familiar face. "Aw, come on!"

Tony returned. "What's wrong?"

Annie frowned. "That's...that's my boyfriend down there with that girl."

Tony grabbed the rail. "That's my sister." Tony began to ran down the stairs, Annie fast behind him.

"Kate! Get off of that boys face NOW!" Tony ran up to the couple on the lawn chair and peeled Lindsey off of his sister. "Get out of here."

Lindsey went towards Annie, arms open. "Oh, thank God you are here - I have been trying to find you."

She let him hug her. Annie looked for Tony again. He looked back at her as he took his sister out of the motel and shook his head.

"Can you believe that guy?" Lindsey asked, rubbing his arms where he had been picked up. "He could have hurt me!"

Annie would have loved that.

_-Hyperion Hotel, October 4th-_

"If I had known we were to have class reunions, I don't believe I would have ever signed up for Xavier's, Ms. Frost. With all due honesty."

"And with all due honesty, Paige, please leave the above-it-all attitude to Monet. You've worn overalls with no irony. It is not yours to have."

Paige shut her mouth as Jubilee and Monet shared a smirk.

"Can we stop arguin' and get down to business?" Sean pointed at a body resting on the couch. "Do you see that? We need to work on that."

"Disposal?" Monet asked. "If that's the case, I believe I saw John Storm drinking energy drinks earlier - one enthusiastic fist pump and our worries would be en flambe."

"We do not to dispose of the body, rather the soul," Emma explained.

Jubilee rolled her eyes. "So you recruited us, the three most obviously not empaths in the world, to help? Genius."

Emma pointed to Monet. "Monet's family history is pre-disposed to this sort of activity. I thought she might be of some use. And you, Jubilee, as the person with the most field experience on physical and psionic planes, are needed to go in there with me for protection."

Jubilee nodded, glad someone recognized that she had been a super-hero for for-fucking-ever.

"And me, Ms. Frost?" Paige asked, excited to be part.

Emma looked at Sean and nodded. "We need you to husk into a holding cell for a psionic spirit that we will be eventually dispose of."

Paige gulped and tried to cover it with poise. "I would definitely need to look up some information before that happens."

"Fair enough." Sean stood with his arms folded and the girls left to pursue their tasks. "'Husk inta holding cell for a psionic spirit' - ye pulled that plan out yer ass."

Emma smiled. "I knew I could get you to think about my ass." Victory.

_-Dundee, Indiana - Past-_

His classmates were scattered around Fred Creek's home, passed out. Except Hank. He barely felt buzzed. The only thing he needed were his car keys and then he could get home safely.

His keys were in his coat.

His coat was underneath Bo Shilling and the Morgan sisters. (Where he should have been.)

Not having any success, Hank decided to walk the ten miles to his parents house from Creek's farm. It was very early in the morning and beginning to rain. Hank delighted in walking in the mud in his bare feet.

It didn't last very long as an old beat up pick up truck was speeding down the road. After passing Hank, it stopped and the passenger door opened.

Hank ran up and looked in the door. "Thank you for stopping."

The driver, a woman in a sun hat and green linen dress, eyes wet with tears, yelled, "Just get in! The rain is going to get worse and I need to get out of here by morning!"

Hank hopped in and closed the door. The driver sped out. "I just need to go up past the cornfield by the Robertson farm - you don't need to go up the driveway or anything."

"Past the McCoy's?"

"No, at. That's my parent's house."

The driver looked at him. "Hank?"

Hank studied the driver's face with more interest. He couldn't place her right away, but the green eyes were very familiar.

She stopped the truck. "Hank, it's me - Beth." Beth smiled. "I lived with your family for a summer?" She looked at him, sure he would remember. "I was twelve, you must have been ten."

"Beth?" Hank felt like he had forgotten her on purpose as he didn't know how he could forget her.

"You've gotten mighty big, Hank.

"Beth...why are you back in town?" Hank didn't know the full story of why she had been with his family that summer, but remembered his mother stating that Beth could never come back.

_-The Moon, the Astral Plane in the mind of Annie Peckenpaugh-_

Hank pulled himself away from Annie. She had almost the same green eyes. "We can't do this."

Annie put his hands on his chest. "Because you're a centaur?"

"I hadn't remembered that, but that is an excellent reason." Hank cleared his throat. "I can't use you like this."

Annie frowned. "You don't want to use Beth with me."

"How do you know about her?"

Annie frowned. "The same way I knew that Bobby's aunt beat him when he was a kid. It's part of the 'gift'. Usually, I need prolonged body contact to absorb the memory."

"Sexual activity?"

"Yes, there are other ways, though."

"What are they?"

"I...haven't figured that out yet." Annie blushed.

"What is the memory you absorb?"

"I'm not quite sure...I know for Bobby, it was a moment of extreme trauma - one that he had repressed. I have one from Sean that I believe was shame. I just know that they come at a moment when there is prolonged skin to skin contact and a loss of mental control."

Hank had an "a ha" moment. "An orgasm is definitely the most efficient way for that scenario to happen...is it on their end or on your end?"

"Are you asking as a scientist?"

Hank nodded. "Mostly."

"I haven't quite made a study out of it, yet."

Hank began looking around the moon. It was an absolutely stunning place to be and he had no idea why he hadn't thought about looking at it more. "Annie, when you just kissed me and you saw that memory...has that ever happened before? That fast?"

"No...unless, did you-"

"NO."

"Ok. Then that's a no." Annie looked at where Hank was looking. "Do you think that the moon enhances that ability?"

"Better." Hank looked in her eyes with an open smile. "I saw your memory. I saw the Holiday Inn, I recognized your former fiance - and I noticed Tony." He noted the similarity between his high school self and the boy he saw in the memory.

Annie breathed hard. "It may not seem like much of a memory, but it's actually a happy one."

"Mine, too." Hank placed his hands on her hips. "Now figure out how to make me a not-centaur because we're going to do it."

"We are?"

"For science!"

"...we are?"

"And years of pent up sexual tension and frustration."

"That's better."


	4. Chapter 4

**Applejack**

By Mice

**Chapter 3: Summer Love Sensation**

**-The Sun-**

"I feel good. Can we try an experiment?"

"Now?" Drake'son motioned to their surroundings on the Sun.

Bobby pouted. "I know it's not the most convenient -"

"We're trying to retrieve Annie's mother from the center of the sun -"

"But I'm really curious!"

"You really want to dedicate a fraction of the time we are spending in Annie's mind on an experiment."

"...yeah, I'm feeling really good right now."

After a very long sigh, "Before we try your experiment?"

"Yes?"

"Can I try one?"

"Yes!"

"Is you experiment to see what song lyric I'm thinking about at this particular moment?"

Bobby was amazed. "You really are me!"

"No, I'm an empath, Robert. It's a popular question, for some reason."

"Oh." Bobby was disappointed.

"What lyric are you thinking about?"

"You mean you can't tell?"

"My empathic abilities are a bit taxed at the moment."

"Oh!" Bobby was relieved. "I'm thinking of that one line from "Horse with No Name" by America."

"'There were plants and birds and rocks and things'?"

"No, but I do think about that line a lot."

"'The heat was hot'?"

"Yes. Because it is." Bobby could lie to himself and say that this adventure was not unnerving. It was bad enough to be in the head of his ex-girlfriend, but to be in the company of an alternate version of himself made him extra uncomfortable. Especially since, "You are very easy to be around, Drake'son."

"Really? I felt that you were at ill-ease."

"Yeah...that's part of it. Everybody seems to love you and everyone seems to really hate me at the moment. I really wanted to hate you...but you're a really nice guy."

"I have heard those sentiments expressed about you in the past from others."

Bobby nodded. "I've become-"

"A dick, Bobby. You've become a dick that nobody wants to be in the same room with." Drake'son looked at him with his good eye and Bobby felt stared down. "I tell you this because your friends stare at me and I can feel what they are thinking. When Jean was still alive, she'd stare at me with this sad nostalgia and I could do nothing for her but eat ice cream sandwiches and make her feel that her friend was all right."

"I can only imagine what it was like with Jubilee."

Drake'son put his hand on Bobby's shoulder. "She has never expected me to be you. She's the only one who recognizes me as a seperate entity."

Bobby grinned cockily. "Prove it."

"How?"

"What movie did you watch on New Year's?"

"Eve?"

"No. New Year's. We had a tradition. Every year, even apart. Name it."

"Well...the first year we watched "Xanadu"-"

"Called it. She-"

Drake'son interrupted. "But the next, we began a new tradition."

**-New Year's, Two Years Ago-**

_Warriors...come out and pla-ye-yay!_

**-The Moon-**

"Am I still half man, half beast?"

"Afraid so."

Hank and Annie laid on the cool surface of the moon in frustration. "Why is everything so hard?"

Annie began to laugh.

"Explain yourself."

"Just can't get the image of you in your hometown out of my mind. Because to me, you are Dr. Henry McCoy - genius, scientist who sprang from Walden's Pond by some sort of immaculate and furry conception." Annie shook her head to shake the image away. "You were such a boy."

Hank frowned. "I was a large young man. Lots of muscles."

"No, you were a boy. I could tell it in your eyes...nothing significant had happened to you." Annie turned to look at him. "I wonder if that's how I must have looked to you when we met."

"You were much older."

"Nothing of much significance had happened to me at that time."

Hank tried to remember what she had looked like and was surprised to remember. "You reminded me of a cat in a pound. Unhappy to be there, but too dignified to meow."

"I probably mewed a bit."

"You didn't belong there."

"How could you tell?"

Hank closed his eyes. "Your eyes, large and green. When you're unhappy, they search."

"Everybody does that."

"All girls do that when they are unhappy," he remembered.

**-Back Dirt Road in Dundee, Illinois, Past- **

"Beth, why are you back in town?"

She began to shudder and cry again. Hank went to grab her hand that began to hit the steering wheel repeatedly. "Brad Zuk."

Hank remembered Brad Zuk. Older than him by a few years and the youngest arsonist in Dundee - a record all the young people of Dundee were encouraged not to beat. All memories Hank had of Brad did not match what Beth had in mind.

"He wrote me, Hank - and I was so flattered that he would remember me after all these years!"

"Where have you been, Beth?" Hank opened the dashboard and found a napkin for her to wipe her eyes and nose with.

"Foster care." She blew her nose before looking at him with her red rimmed green eyes. "I bet your folks never did that again after me."

"I wasn't aware that you knew Brad," Hank offered, trying to remember.

"Do you remember when we'd go to the neighbor's barn and swing off the rope until Edna would come over to get us for dinner?" Beth stopped crying briefly to smile.

"Mr. Agess's barn." Hank hadn't thought about that barn for a long time, but the memories of the two of them swinging off the rope began to come back.

"How's Norton?"

"Good." Actually, Hank was too busy being a senior in high school and focusing on how to get out of Dundee to really think about his parents.

"I miss your parents, Hank."

"They haven't."

"What?"

Hank shook his head. "They never took on more foster kids. I began to really grow after you left." He held up his hands.

"Oh, you always were bigger than everyone else!" Beth smiled. "You grew up nice, Hank. Real nice."

"You came back for Brad Zuk?"

"He was my first love, Hank."

"At age twelve?"

Beth shrugged. "I'm a romantic!"

Hank grew silent. "When did all this happen?"

"Brad's family were neighbor's of the next house I stayed at. I was literally the girl next door...stayed their until Christmas and then got moved to a girls' home in Chicago."

"Where are you now?"

"Still Chicago. I was going to college, got kicked out. Then I got that letter from Brad and I thought...well, stupid things that only girls think."

"Beth, did he do anything to you?"

Beth began to laugh loud enough to make the truck shake. "Hank, he's in prison. I went to the address on the letter and his folks told me that he's now in Cook County Jail."

"And you're crying."

"Yeah, well, my life is just a fantastic clusterfuck." Her hands danced around her head like dead fairies. "I have no idea what I'm doing anymore."

Hank remained silent, not quite understanding what he needed to do for her. "I have a wonderfully stupid idea, Beth."

**-Hyperion Hotel, October 4th-**

"I'm grateful to ye, Emma."

"It's nothing, Sean - it is a fairly routine process." Emma did not smile. "I am rather confused as to why I was not asked to participate in the other operation."

"There was no asking with that woman!" Sean stared out the window. "She just barged into my room, told me what was up and what I needed to do."

"Robert's grandmother?"

"Aye."

"She drank your booze, didn't she?"

"And took some of it with her."

"I don't think anybody is sad to hear that, Sean." Emma went to the unconscious female on the bed. "So, who is this, exactly?"

"Anagiovanna St. Prix is what the woman who took my booze called her."

"That's mentally. Remember, Sean, we're extracting a psionic signature." Emma straightened out the long piece of chocolate brown hair elegantly mixed with distinguished white trails of age. "Who does the body belong to - Annie's mother?"

Sean shook his head. "No. Nobody seems to know where that is, considering that whatever is buried back in Wyoming is no longer there."

"If you ask me," Jubilee interrupted, entering the room. "And nobody ever does, this could be Jacqueline Lubbock."

Emma and Sean looked at their former pupil who had a knowledge sandwich and they were both very hungry.

"Yeah, remember Harper Lubbock? Went to the Massachusetts Academy, too? Empath, upstairs with Annie? My ex-boyfriend and Bobby's cousin? Yeah, well, anywhoodaddle, his mom used to be an assassin for Anagiovanna with her twin sister, Jacqueline. Since Harpo's mom is doing fine and is my friend on Pinterest, I'm guessing that this is her sister."

"What happened to Jacqueline Lubbock?"

Jubilee shrugged. "All I know is that she died - the Basses don't go into it, neither does Julia." A smile crept on her face. "If this is Jacqueline, Jacob is gonna puke hearts."

Emma frowned. "Jubilee, this isn't about retrieving anyone but Anagiovanna. Once the empaths upstairs extract Salem, this body is going to serve as her new home."

"But what about Jacqueline Lubbock? Like, you don't get how moony Jacob still is over her. Trust me, I lived with this family." Jubilee stomped her foot. "If she's in there, we owe it to Jacob to do the right thing."

"Who's Jacob?" Sean asked.

"Bobby's uncle."

Emma clarified. "The mad booze woman's son."

Sean stepped up to Jubilee. "Well, that mad booze woman made it clear what we needed to do and she said nothing about spelunking for ghosts."

"That mad booze woman? Is my biffle. And if there was a chance to make her son happy, she'd make it happen."

"If she is your...biffle," God, Emma hated slang. "And she knew that this woman was still alive all this time and kept it from her son, don't you find that absolutely disturbing?"

"My biffle would have reasons, Queenie. And I trust her far more than I trust you."

"And why is that?"

Jubilee rolled her eyes. "I'm the one who found Bobby after you took over his body."

Emma smiled. "Clearly a case of jealousy."

**-The Sun-**

"Draw your sword."

"I know for a fact neither of us know how to use a sword."

"Good," Bobby said, stone faced and sword drawn. "We'll be evenly matched."

"May I remind you that we are not here to deal with petty jealousies?" Drake'son pointed at Salem Brodie, flaming in the sky. "In fact, if you wanted to really do something, ice her down."

"'Ice her down'?"

"Do you even remember that you are the Iceman?" Drake'son stepped closer to him, moving Bobby's sword to the side.

Bobby frowned. "I haven't been able to do that for a while. And it's not because I'm de-powered or anything. I just can't."

"Can you do anything?"

"I have a sword. And I'm in the mind of my ex-girlfriend with a cool version of myself." Bobby threw his sword down. "I'm of no use here."

The sword disappeared. "You didn't want a grand adventure?"

"My version of a grand adventure would not include horses or wearing metal into the blazing sun!" Bobby closed his eyes. "We both know what my version of this would be."

**-The Sun II: A Bobby Drake Production-**

Lights.

Camera.

"I really missed my mullet."

"I really missed mine, too."

Hi5ives.

"Our horses are gone."

Bobby raised his hand, sun glistening in his permed mullet, pink t-shirt tight on his chest from sweat.

Drake'son looked to Bobby and then out into the distance where he saw a lit with goldfire, soundtracked with synthesizer, 1987 Ford Escort.

_There's something inside you_

_It's hard to explain_

_They're talking about you, boy_

_But you're still the same_

"Who drives?"

"Only I get to drive Lady Jaye." Bobby grinned.

Drake'son stared. "Who?"

The car stopped in front of them, a wave of sand blowing like a cape behind her. The doors opened automatically to let them in and introduced herself.

"Lady Jaye, reporting for duty, Sirs Drake." The doors closed. "I hope you don't mind, but I'm driving."

Lyrics from "Nightcall" By Kavinsky.

Am picturing who voices Bobby's beloved car, Lady Jaye. Lori Petty?


End file.
